[1] The word "cable" is a various reading for "camel" in the Biblical phrase, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle" of Matt. xix. 24, Mark x. 25, and Luke xviii. 25, mentioned as early as Cyril of Alexandria (5th cent.); and it was adopted by Sir John Cheke and other 16th century and later English writers. The reading κάμιλος for κάμηλος is found in several late cursive MSS. Cheyne, in the Ency. Biblica, ascribes it to a non-Semitic scribe, and regards κάμηλος as correct. (See under Camel.)
[2] The dimensions marked in the figure are those for 1-in. chains, and signify so many diameters of the iron of the common links; thus forming a scale for all sizes.
CABLE MOULDING, in architecture, the term given to a convex moulding carved in imitation of a rope or cord, and used to decorate the mouldings of the Romanesque style in England, France and Spain. The word "cabling" by itself indicates a convex circular moulding sunk in the concave fluting of a classic column, and rising about one-third of the height of the shaft.
CABOCHE, SIMON. Simon Lecoustellier, called "Caboche", a skinner of the Paris Boucherie, played an important part in the Parisian riots of 1413. He had relations with John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, since 1411, and was prominent in the seditious disturbances which broke out in April and May, following on the États of February 1413. In April he stirred the people to the point of revolt, and was among the first to enter the hôtel of the dauphin. When the butchers had made themselves masters of Paris, Caboche became bailiff (huissier d'armes) and warden of the bridge of Charenton. Upon the publication of the great ordinance of May 26th, he used all his efforts to prevent conciliation between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. After the fall of the Cabochien party on the 4th of August he fled to Burgundy in order to escape from royal justice. Doubtless he returned to Paris in 1418 with the Burgundians.
See Colville, Les Cabochiens et l'ordonnance de 1413 (Paris, 1888).
CABOT, GEORGE (1751-1823), American political leader, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the 16th of December 1751. He studied at Harvard from 1766 to 1768, when he went to sea as a cabin boy. He gradually became a ship-owner and a successful merchant, retiring from business in 1794. Throughout his life he was much interested in politics, and though his temperamental indolence and his aversion for public life often prevented his accepting office, he exercised, as a contributor to the press and through his friendships, a powerful political influence, especially in New England. He was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1770-1780, of the state senate in 1782-1783, of the convention which in 1788 ratified for Massachusetts the Federal Constitution, and from 1791 to 1796 of the United States Senate, in which, besides serving on various important committees, he became recognized as an authority on economic and commercial matters. Among the bills introduced by him in the Senate was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Upon the establishment of the navy department in 1798, he was appointed and confirmed as its secretary, but he never performed the duties of the office, and was soon replaced by Benjamin Stoddert (1751-1813), actually though not nominally the first secretary of the department. In 1814-1815 Cabot was the president of the Hartford Convention, and as such was then and afterwards acrimoniously attacked by the Republicans throughout the country. He died in Boston on the 18th of April 1823. In politics he was a staunch Federalist, and with Fisher Ames, Timothy Pickering and Theophilus Parsons (all of whom lived in Essex county, Massachusetts) was classed as a member of the "Essex Junto",—a wing of the party and not a formal organization. A fervent advocate of a strong centralized government, he did much to secure the ratification by Massachusetts of the Federal Constitution, and after the overturn of the Federalist by the Republican party, he wrote (1804): "We are democratic altogether, and I hold democracy in its natural operation to be a government of the worst".
See Henry Cabot Lodge's Life and Letters of George Cabot (Boston, 1877).
CABOT, JOHN [Giovanni Caboto] (1450-1498), Italian navigator and discoverer of North America, was born in Genoa, but in 1461 went to live in Venice, of which he became a naturalized citizen in 1476. During one of his trading voyages to the eastern Mediterranean, Cabot paid a visit to Mecca, then the greatest mart in the world for the exchange of the goods of the East for those of the West. On inquiring whence came the spices, perfumes, silks and precious stones bartered there in great quantities, Cabot learned that they were brought by caravan from the north-eastern parts of farther Asia. Being versed in a knowledge of the sphere, it occurred to him that it would be shorter and quicker to bring these goods to Europe straight across the western ocean. First of all, however, a way would have to be found across this ocean from Europe to Asia. Full of this idea, Cabot, about the year 1484, removed with his family to London. His plans were in course of time made known to
the leading merchants of Bristol, from which port an extensive trade was carried on already with Iceland. It was decided that an attempt should be made to reach the island of Brazil or that of the Seven Cities, placed on medieval maps to the west of Ireland, and that these should form the first halting-places on the route to Asia by the west.
To find these islands vessels were despatched from Bristol during several years, but all in vain. No land of any sort could be seen. Affairs were in this state when in the summer of 1493 news reached England that another Genoese, Christopher Columbus, had set sail westward from Spain and had reached the Indies. Cabot and his friends at once determined to forgo further search for the islands and to push straight on to Asia. With this end in view application was made to the king for formal letters patent, which were not issued until March 5, 1496. By these Henry VII. granted to his "well-beloved John Cabot, citizen of Venice, to Lewis, Sebastian and Santius,[[1]] sonnes of the said John, full and free authority, leave and power upon theyr own proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discover and finde whatsoever isles, countries, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians". Merchandise from the countries visited was to be entered at Bristol free of duty, but one-fifth of the net gains was to go to the king.